


First Trumpet

by Jevil_Joss



Series: The Fall of the Lobotomy Corporation [5]
Category: Lobotomy Corporation (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 22:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19451191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss
Summary: A few escaped Abnormalities can be handled, but this is getting ridiculous.





	First Trumpet

Micaela looked up as the First Trumpet started blaring. "Don't worry," Tiphereth's voice came over the radio. "Punishing Bird broke out the same time as Ppodae."

Micaela got up and started walking through the Command Center at a leisurely pace. "..."

"We just had a Qliphoth Meltdown. Guess we missed Ppodae."

Micaela entered the hallway and fired off a shot. Ppodae went down easily. "Job done. I'm going to go and--"

_"Ruff!"_

She spun around. Ppodae was out. Again. She fired, and again, took him out. She stared hard at his cell, and saw this time as he broke out again. 

"What the hell is going on?" she growled, firing again. 

"Punishing Bird is still out? That's not good. Um, Funeral's out as well...And the Scarecrow?"

Justin pulled out Crimson Scar. Halynn pulled out Justitia. Daniel worriedly pulled out the Soda. Khabib sighed and pulled out the fairy wand. 

"We need emergency backup," came a voice from behind them. Mei. "I can't take Alriune by myself, guys!" 

"We...have our own problem," Justin replied. Judgement Bird walked into the room, holding up his scale. 

"Extraction Team, under no circumstances are you allowed to let Big Bird get out," Gebura called. "If we have to deal with _that_ thing while we're still dealing with everything else, we'd be in for a world of hurt."

"We're almost done with energy production," Angela said over the radio. "Keep damage to a minimum, but maximize energy production. Tina, work on the Parasite Tree. Leave Alriune alone--for now. Everett do work on the Big Bad Wolf."

"Nothing too bad has gotten out," Manager X's voice came over the radio. "We might suffer a LOB reduction, but at this point, I'm thinking we need to fix a lot of issues right now." 

Halynn swung quickly at Judgement Bird as Justin fired. 

"Justin, get out of there. If you die, it'll trigger the Knight of Despair, and I don't really want that," X said again. 

Cursing, Justin ran out. 

"So, just beat this guy up?" Khabib asked, firing off a series of stars with the fairy wand. 

"Yeah. And again, if necessary," Gebura stated. "Make it hurt."

"Did something else get out?" Halynn asked. 

"What? No. Make the Judgement--where the hell did Judgement Bird go?"

"I beat it up," Halynn replied. "It's...actually kind of a wimp."

"You soloed a WAW Abnormality...blindfolded," Gebura said slowly. 

"As I said, that thing's a wimp," Halynn replied with shrug. 

"Oookay," Gebura said, without anything else to say.

"Wait. Doesn't Red's Qliphoth lower when something else escapes?"

"Just so you know," Justin said, poking his head into the Disciplinary Team, "I just beat up Red, so she should be good for a bit."

"Aaaand good work, all of you." Manager X swiveled around in his/her chair. "We produced enough energy for the day."

"Does anyone," Dexter began, "have the foggiest clue about _what the everloving HELL_ just happened?"

"I'm just glad none of the bad ones got out," Maxwell said. Yumi had asked before, and apparently, Maxwell had no vision problems, and could see _through_ the blindfold. Yumi awkwardly tugged at the scratchy collar of her EGO suit before saying, "Does this have anything to do the Abnormality I was supposed to work with?"

"Er, no. From what I understand, [CENSORED] doesn't generally do anything unless you actually get in to work with him." X looked at her, their silhouette shown on the computer screen. "Just to be on the safe side, did anything...happen...when you worked on <gender redacted>?"

"Actually, I had just gotten into the Command Center when things started going to hell and back," Yumi said. "My trip was delayed by Green Dawn, then I got whammied by Void Dream." She chuckled. "I, uh, only woke up after everything was back up."

"Yeah, that was my fault. Sorry." X looked around. "Anyone else notice anything unusual?"

"Everything fine down below," Tina said. "And I don't really see what the Parasite Tree could have done. Achoo." Daniel, who sat beside Tina, scooted to the side as Tina wiped her nose. 

"Everything went perfectly in the Welfare Team," Morrigan said, straightening his EGO suit, Magic Bullet. He chewed his pipe thoughtfully. "Actually, nothing down there escaped. Not even La Luna."

Noah, who was eternally pissed at everything that moved and most things that didn't, glared thoughtfully. Yumi didn't know her very well, and Noah appeared to like it that way. "Actually, the Funeral and the Scarecrow got out, but the Nameless Fetus was unaffected. Only things that could Breach experienced Qliphoth reduction."

"If I may," a voice intruded. Evangeline strode into the room, wearing a tuxedo and using a silver-shod walking cane. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she appeared to have acquired a single scratch on her cheek. The skin around it appeared to be cracked. "This appears to be too neat for just coincidence."

"And by that, you mean...?" 

"Simple. Sabotage."

There was a stunned silence. 

"Lobotomy Corporation produces the most energy of all of the Wings," Evangeline said. "It makes sense for some of the other Wings to try and sabotage us, to increase their own public opinion."

"Shit."

"That's..." Dexter frowned. "I don't see how sabotaging another Wing could increase anyone's public opinion of yourself."

"If Lobotomy Corp.'s energy production lowered, the common people would look to others for the aid that we'd no longer be able to give. And if another Wing just _happened_ to be able to produce large amounts of energy all of a sudden, if they _happened_ to be prepared..."

"Damn, that's actually a good argument," Dexter said, running a hand through his hair. 

"We don't really have any conclusive evidence of anything yet," X stated. He/she gave a dramatic sigh. "For now, just continue as normal. If it wasn't an isolated incident, then we'll find out. If it was, then we won't waste anything on a sabotage plot that doesn't exist." There was a pause. "Evangeline, you might want to have that scratch checked on."

"I did."

"...okay then. Angela, you can turn off the camera."

"It's been a while," Yumi told Evangeline. 

"Yumi." Evangeline smiled. She extended a hand, which Yumi gladly shook. 

"You two are friends?" Mei asked with a frown. 

"Evangeline _has_ friends?" Micaela asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Ouch," Evangeline said, wincing. "Uh, Mei, what's with the mouth-piece?"

"Thank God," Yumi burst out. "No one mentioned it, and I just felt too awkward to say anything." Mei had, some time in the past twenty-four hours, started wearing a large mask over her mouth. The mask looked vaguely like teeth and nightmares had a baby, as it looked like a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. 

"Isn't it the EGO gift from Little Red?" Morrigan asked. He himself had numerous EGO gifts--a weird jester hat from Laetitia, a pipe from Der Freischütz, and a pair of cute dog ears from Ppodae. 

Mei blushed. "Yeaaah. She followed it up with a bullet to the face."

Evangeline sat down on a large, stuffed chair. "I only ever got the one EGO gift--from Beauty and the Beast."

"Noobs," Destiny said provokingly. "Justin has _four_."

Justin looked up. He did indeed have four--on his forehead, the crown from the Burrowing Heaven, which had the eyeballs move every few seconds. Curled along the sides of his head were two goat horns, and on his cheek was a large frozen streak. He idly chewed on a match in his teeth. "Hmm?"

"What about you, Maxwell?" Yumi asked. 

Maxwell gestured to the blindfold she wore. "That, an earring from...well, it was either Yin or Yang, one of them, I'm sure, the necklace from Punishing Bird, and this flower from Beauty and the Beast."

"Judgement Bird flat out ripped out my eyeballs," Halynn stated simply. "And I've been carrying around my coffin ever since I worked on the Funeral."

"Sounds like I've missed a lot of good times," Evangeline said with a rye grin. She reached for a thing of wine on a nearby table, but it happened to be just out of reach. She grimaced, but Yumi quickly passed it to her. 

"Thanks," Evangeline said with a smile. She poured it into a cup. 

"No problem," Yumi replied, taking a seat. "I've always treated subordinates, or ex-subordinates, as the case may be, with proper respect."

There was a stunned silence. "What?" Yumi asked, noticing everyone was looking at her. 

"Oh, yeah." Yuri frowned thoughtfully. She had been silent for a long time. "You were Captain of the Control Team, weren't you?"

"And a damn good one, to boot," Dexter said. He gave Yumi a nod of respect, then got up, stretching. "I'm off." 

"Holy shit," Destiny whispered. 

"Why is everyone so surprised?"

"I guess they assumed Dexter or Yuri was the Captain," Evangeline said, sipping her wine. 

"Did no one else know this?" Maxwell asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked around the room, judgingly, a startling feat considering the blindfold she wore. 

"You know what, who cares?" Yumi shrugged, poured herself some wine, and raised it. "To another day!"

Rabbit folded her arms. She tapped a foot impatiently. Angela gave her a flat stare. 

"I know what this sounds like," X stated. 

"I know exactly what this sounds like," she growled. "Look, my men have enough work to do with that bloody Aleph you've got in the basement, with keeping things like the Harmony of the Skin off the streets, and now you're asking me to try and find a saboteur?"

"...Actually, I thought you'd think I was suggesting you were the saboteur."

Rabbit snorted. "Despite your usual demeanor, you're not that stupid."

She turned around and began pacing. 

"We don't even know if it is sabotage yet," X said, rising. "Look, I'm just asking--"

"No." Rabbit stopped, holding up a hand. "I don't have enough men for a large scale operation like this,"

"I'm only asking for a couple," X told her. "Please. Just a few men to station outside the worst Abnormalities to escape. I'm talking <censored>, the Mountain, Big Bad Wolf..." He/she paused. "And Apocalypse Bird."

Silence. "You know I can't stop Apocalypse Bird."

"You can't put him back up, but you can try and keep him in."

"Grrrr...fine. Fine, fine, fine. But I'm not doing _anything_ for free."

"As usual," X said, extending his/her hand. Rabbit glared at him. "You'll need to lock down those three, if you want to continue keeping it a secret."

"I know. But I'm prioritizing keeping him from getting out. <censored>'s doable, Alriune's easy, and the Wolf can at least be done. But Apocalypse Bird could very well end Lobotomy Corp."


End file.
